Been a bit since I posted. Sorry to disappear like that.

a) UCM lost in the NCAA Div II Final Four to the eventual national champions Findley (OH) University 67-65. Congrats to Findley for going 36-0 on the season. Well done.

b) Survived the daughter-unit's 16th birthday party over the weekend. Good part - everyone enjoyed themselves. Best part - over until next year.

c) Found out I did not get accepted into University of Baltimore's MFA program by logging into my student page and finding the message waiting there. Official word is supposed to come sometime this week. Will try and schedule a meeting with the Dept. Chair to see what I can do to improve my chances for next year. If I don't get in then, I'll just pass on the MFA. I'd be 55 if I get in next year. Any older than that and it shifts from being useful to vanity.

Yeah, that one stings a bit. Esp. since I have more pro credits than most of the instructors at the school, but I can't teach at the local JuCo without the Masters. Maybe I'll look into getting a straight MA in English instead.

d) I lost Monday because my old computer was just not enjoying life, so I have a new baby in the house. It's a cute little HP Pavillion dv7-1245dx Entertainment Computer. Let me tell you, that extra 2G of RAM is making this baby scream loading programs compared to the old Toshiba. The Toshiba would have probably been fine with XP on the machine, but Vista and it were NOT friends. Took a little bit to figure out how to move all the stuff from one machine to the other (esp. setting up Thunderbird as my mail client and getting it to talk to a recalcitrant mail server).

e) And speaking of pro cred, as you might note from the title of this blog entry, I have officially hit the end of Shadows this evening. Yes, I know I need to add another chapter and yes, I know it needs editing/rewriting and yes, I know the 13th is still right around the corner.

But, the first draft is done.

I finished Chapter 22 and then wrote a bridge chapter (currently Chapter 13b) which explains some of what happens in Chapter 21. Now to add in the new chapter and modify the chapters I've already identified to accommodate all the rest of the stuff I added in 20, 21 and 22. I'm quite convinced, the new stuff I have to add will push me well over what I needed for this book.

But still, it's nice to say, I'm in editing mode, not writing mode.

Note to self, never get this far behind on a project again or else push for a more reasonable delivery date.

And now, it's off to bed.
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Words for the day

3810 / 1000 words. 381%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

78399 / 80000 words. 98% done!

Words for 2009

69835 / 365000 words. 19%

First and foremost, "Happy Birthday" to wishweaver!!!

We both had to go into work today to make up some hours, so we took advantage of it by stopping at Eggspectations in Ellicott City. Nice leisurely breakfast and then on to work.

When we pulled in, Wish noticed the motorcycle beside us had its blinkers going. She got out and noticed not only were the blinkers still on, so was the headlight and the keys were still in the ignition. We quickly notified security and they secured the keys until the owner realized he didn't have them on him. *grin*

We put in four hours and then I took Wish out shopping for her birthday. We took advantage of some sales and she got a new winter coat for next year as well as some new body washes and perfumes from Bath and Body Shop. I tried to pick up the Coraline soundtrack, but everyone was out. I did pick up Deep Purple: The Greatest Hits, so it wasn't a total wash.

Came home to find the daughter-unit had baked her first cake unsupervised. She was worried because she had overbeatten the batter, but personally, the cake was the fluffiest one I had ever had and I highly recommended that she overbeat all of her cakes from now on. She was so nervous about it, but it turned out great! What a nice present to give her mom.

I did get some writing in this evening while she tried to help a friend of hers who had gotten something on her computer. I added 2111 words to Shadows, bringing my weekend total to 6964 words. I can't guarantee I'll match that output every weekend, but it's nice to know I "can" do it if I have to. Wrapped up Chapter 15 and now moving on to Chapter 16 tomorrow night. We're heading into the homestretch now.
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Words for Today

2111 / 1000 words. 211%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

49655 / 80000 words. 62%

Words for 2009

41099 / 365000 words. 11%

Well, I'm definitely going to have to go into work this Sunday to finish a project that's due Monday morning. *bleah* But as far as Shadows is coming along, I'm pretty pleased with my efforts for the evening. I added 2051 words and now all the different groups are starting to come together on the stage, whether they want to or not.

Took wishweaver out for dinner tonight as a pre-birthday dinner. The daughter-unit wants to make waffles and bacon for Wish's actual birthday (and I say, more power to her). Plus, Wish and her will be baking the cake the daughter picked out tomorrow night for Sunday's festivities.

Tried a new roll combo at dinner that was very tasty. Crab and Asparagus on the inside of the roll and then, salmon and avocado draped in alternating sequence across the top of the roll. I love going out for sushi. One of these days I really need to learn how to make some of the basic rolls.

No word back from Fandemonium on my questions, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And beyond that, not much to say, except . . .

Night, LJ.
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Words for Today

2051 / 1000 words. 205%

Words for SG-1: Shadows of the Heart,

44740 / 80000 words. 56%

Words for 2009

36186 / 365000 words. 10%

The document that wouldn't die at work is now down to the last four pictures I have to regenerate. Did I happen to mention that the original document I'm working from has the captions on these pictures in Ariel 4pt font? Thank God they gave me a .pdf to work from. I'm blowing these pages up to 400% to read them. I know what's happened. They made the pictures and then inserted them into the documents without paying attention to the scale. So, the pictures were downsized to make them fit on 8X11 pages, taking the font down with them.

OUCH.

But, it'll be over tomorrow. I will finish them by lunchtime. And then they're off to someone else to work on for a while.

After I quit on that project for the day, I knocked out two other assignments that had been on hold, so it was a pretty good day at work all the way around.

Took the daughter-unit out for her birthday dinner. She wanted to hit one of the local Japanese restaurants, so wishweaver and I had the hibachi while DU had her Shrimp rolls, shumai, soup and rice. (OK, I had some yellowtail and salmon sushi also, but the hibachi was the main course.) Then, while Wish was in class, I took the daughter out to GameStop and she picked up a couple of video games she'd been drooling over for some time. I think it's safe to say she made out like a bandit for b-day again.

Played some more Xenosaga tonight and then retired to write. Picked up pretty much where I left off last night and added 1657 words to Steel on Target. I'm trying to be careful to walk the fine line between being "too military" where I lose my readers in the jargon and "too civilian" where it doesn't feel like it's a military story. Still, now that we're in Chapter Seven, I'm hoping my readers would be able to follow some of the back and forth of milspeak. (Yes, it is a dialect.)

I'm going to have to spend some time tomorrow night cleaning before my writing partner April and her husband come up on Saturday. We're going to be celebrating Wish's birthday, my daughter's birthday and her husband's birthday Saturday night. Good times should be had by all.

(Just looking at my writing log. If I hadn't lost that week in the middle of the month, odd are I would have gone over 100,000 words for the year tonight. *sigh* I still should finish the month strong though.)

But now, bed and work tomorrow.
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Words for Today

1657 / 1000 words. 166%

Progress on Steel on Target

33154 / 90000 words. 37%

Words for 2008

93427 / 366000 words. 26%

We had a great time celebrating wishweaver's birthday today. After we took care of some errands we had to run this morning, the daughter-unit and I took her out to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants for lunch. After that, we swung by the mall and went on a small shopping spree for her. I think she enjoyed picking out her gifts as much as she enjoyed getting them. *grin*

Afterward, we came home and she and the daughter-unit watched a couple of disks worth of Numb3rs, which the daughter-unit had picked up while we were out today. I watched a few episodes, but I can't watch the same series over and over for hours at a shot like they can. I will watch all the episodes eventually, but two or three eps at a time.

Been trying to get some writing done, but I'm not "feeling" it tonight. It took me until almost midnight to get going and I'm only 566 words into the story tonight. I think I'm going to hit the sack and hopefully I'll get going tomorrow.

Maybe I'm as birthday-ed out as Wish was before she went to bed. *grin*
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Words for today

566 / 1000 words. 57%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

77160 / 100000 words. 77%

Words for 2008

78175 / 366000 words. 21%

Happy birthday to terri_osborne!

May you enjoy all the fun you can on this special day.

(looks around)

So, where's the beer?